Oscar committee updates rules for new award season

Oscar committee updates rules for new award season. Ever since its inception in 1929 with an audience of 270, The Academy Awards or The Oscars have been honoring the best in every field in the film industry. Many greats of the industry have been awarded for their contribution and their performances and there are more to come. The annual event was first televised in 1953 but now it can be seen in more than 200 countries. With so much to decide and look after, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was created. This organization is dedicated to the advancements in motion pictures.

Front row (left to right): Councilmember Paul Koretz; Councilmember Paul Krekorian; Academy Museum Director Kerry Brougher; Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs; Academy CEO Dawn Hudson; Councilmember Tom LaBonge and Bill Kramer, Managing Director, Academy Museum and External Relations. Image: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.

The AMPAS also sets the rules and regulation based on which a movie or a producer or any other area of the film is considered as a nominee for the Oscar in their respective categories. The acceptance criteria for some categories are mentioned below:

• If a person has to qualify as a producer nominee for a nominated picture then the producer must have been determined eligible for a Producers Guild of America award for the respective picture. Either that or the producer must have appealed the PGA’s refusal of such eligibility.
• For the Visual effects category, the number of pictures to be included for the initial short listing and further consideration has been increased to 20. However, after the short listing the number of movies to be selected for nominations voting still stands at 10.
• In the Documentary short Subject category, the number of movies to be considered for nominations voting has been increased from 8 to 10. The number of nominees has been set at 5 rather than a possible three, four or five.
• In the Animated Short film and Live action Short film categories, the Board members decided that a film that qualifies through theatrical release must now have a theater run in Los Angeles County for at least seven days. It is also mandatory now that the movie appears in the theatre’s listings with proper date and timings. The number of nominees in both the categories now rests at 5.
• There were other amendments to the rules which include standard date changes and other housekeeping adjustments.

The award rules are reviewed annually by individuals and category committee, after which the Awards Rules Committee reviews all the proposed changes before it presents its recommendations to the Board of Governors to ask for their approval.